Kamloops Commercial Construction Bolsters Stats

This article appeared in the Kamloops This Week on October 19th, 2011 and was written by Jeremy Deutsch.

Construction in Kamloops this year could go down as the tale of two sectors. While residential-permit activity at city hall has taken a bit of a dive in 2011, commercial construction has been there to pick up the slack.

Through September in 2011, the city has handed out $50 million in commercial building permits, compared to $40 million at the same time last year. However, the $79 million in residential permits issued is a drop from the $107 million in 2010.

The city has recorded $137 million in construction activity in 2011, compared to $153 million through the same span last year. In September, the city handed out $11.4 million in building permits, compared to $14.8 million during the same month in 2010.

David Trawin, director of development and engineering services, said the solid numbers from September were better than expected. “It’s one of the strongest commercial years, which has helped keep us strong,” he said. Trawin is now predicting the city will hit $150 million in overall permits, exceeding the target for the year.

In 2010, the city issued $191-million worth of building permits, but expected that number to drop in 2011 to about $140 million.

The city issued $2.3-million in commercial-building permits for the month, a slight dip from the $2.9-million value in September 2010.

The number of single-family permits issued in September hit 14, two-thirds of the 21 permits issued at the same time last year. The city handed out $7.6-million worth of residential permits last month, compared to $10.8 million in September 2010.

Kamloops has only topped the $200-million mark in permits once, in 2008, when it doled out $207-million worth of permits, which remains a record.